Five years ago, World of Warcraft Classic was nothing but a pipe dream in the minds of the most dedicated and nostalgic WoW fans. Now, the game is set to embark on its most jam-packed year of content yet.
Earlier today, Blizzard Entertainment revealed a full roadmap for all of Classic WoW’s upcoming releases, with a full slate of content coming in 2024. Classic fans can expect to feast on new updates for Hardcore servers, as well as the Season of Discovery throughout the course of the whole year. Perhaps the biggest Classic event of the year will come over the summer when the relaunched version of the Cataclysm expansion makes its way back into players’ hands.
The first quarter of the year will feature a revolving door of updates for three different versions of Classic WoW, with Season of Discovery, WotLK, and Classic Hardcore servers all getting new features. In Wrath, the final raid of that expansion, the Ruby Sanctum, will go live, and shortly after, the second level band of content for Season of Discovery servers will launch. That update will increase the maximum level in SoD to 40, with new content including a fresh batch of runes, quests in higher-level zones, a shift in the world PvP event from Ashenvale to Stranglethorn Vale, and a new endgame raid: Gnomeregan.
Season of Discovery has been a monster hit with WoW fans. The game has already brought in millions of players in its first few weeks, with swaths of Classic first-timers joining an ever-growing army of WoW enthusiasts in the wildly different version of the game. According to Blizzard, over 4 million characters were created in the early stages of SoD, with that number only growing. According to Blizzard’s roadmap, both the level 50 and level 60 level bands will be released before the end of next summer.
Although it won’t be receiving as many updates as other versions of the game, Classic Hardcore servers will be getting a long-awaited solo self-found mode in quarter one of 2024. This mode adds an extra parameter of difficulty to the Hardcore experience, making it so you must play the game completely solo (no grouping outside of dungeons), and that all items you obtain must be found by yourself. Not until level 60 will you have access to trading, mail, or the Auction House.
Cataclysm players will be treated to two of that expansion’s former patches before the year comes to an end, with Patch 4.1, Rise of the Zandlari, and Patch 4.2, Rage of the Firelands. With that in mind, the patch cadence for Cataclysm could be extremely rapid, and it’s possible that the Dragon Soul raid will be launched at some point in early 2025.
Without looking too far ahead, though, it’s obvious that 2024 will be the most packed year for WoW Classic yet. The game has come a long way since its initial launch in 2019, and now, with four official versions of Classic (Classic-era, Wrath/Cataclysm, Hardcore, and SoD), it’s obvious that the game and its community are healthier than ever.
